BOU AVENUERed PeakOn 12 November 2016, I headed out with Asieh
Ghodratabadi, Ali Shariat and Zosia Zgolak to climb Red Peak in Alberta's
Kananaskis Country. This hike is described in Gillean Daffern's
Kananaskis Country Trail Guide, but we drew most of our inspiration
from Bob Spirko's trip
report. Starting from Buller Pass trailhead, we followed the
main trail across the junction with the new High Rockies Trail and
continued to the turnoff for North Buller Pass (unsigned just beyond a
footbridge). Increasing snow cover made it difficult at times to
follow the trail, but Ali had Spirko's GPS tracks which helped to keep us
on the right track. Below North Buller Pass, Asieh decided to turn
around due to the windy conditions and cold temperatures. Although
Ali made it up to the pass with Zosia and me, he decided to forego
climbing Red Peak, and instead, he dutifully retreated and accompanied
his wife back to the trailhead. Zosia and I temporarily escaped the
wind by dropping down the east side of North Buller Pass and working our
way northward to bypass an intervening bump between the pass and Red
Peak. Snow was abundant everywhere in this back bowl, but most of
it seemed stable enough for Zosia and me to feel safe about venturing
onto the slopes. A large snow cornice guarded the low point of the
ridge between the intervening bump and Red Peak, but we managed to
surmount it without too much difficulty. From there, it was a long
but simple plod up to the summit of Red Peak. Tragically, Zosia
lost her beloved down jacket here when a strong gust of wind plucked it
from between her legs just as she was about to put it on. The
jacket is now probably being used as a warm bird's nest somewhere in the
vicinity of Sparrowhawk Tarns. As a result, we did not linger for
long before commencing our descent. We stayed a bit higher this
time while traversing to North Buller Pass under the intervening bump in
order to avoid unnecessary elevation gain. After descending from
the pass, we retraced our steps without any issues and reunited with
Asieh and Ali back at the trailhead.

Asieh and Ali follow Sonny into the
valley leading to North Buller Pass (not visible here).

Photo courtesy of
Zosia Zgolak

North Buller Pass (left) is in sight.

Ali and Asieh come up the open slopes
below North Buller Pass. Mount Buller is partially shrouded in
clouds at right.

Zosia climbs up toward North Buller
Pass.

From North Buller Pass, the route cuts
across this slope and climbs toward the corniced ridge at distant
right.